Duplicate Job Question - Veritas Backup Exec

This is a discussion on Duplicate Job Question - Veritas Backup Exec ; I have v9.0 running on a library with 2 drives. I backup 11 different
servers and have decided to run 11 different backup jobs, one for each
different server. Because of the limit of 100 MB on my NIC, I ...

Duplicate Job Question

I have v9.0 running on a library with 2 drives. I backup 11 different
servers and have decided to run 11 different backup jobs, one for each
different server. Because of the limit of 100 MB on my NIC, I only backup
to one drive for all of the drives. If I try to run two jobs simultaneuosly
to both drives I end up saturateing the NIC and the second drive only gets a
throughput of 1 or 2 MB a minute which makes it basically worthless. I
stagger the start times of each of the jobs to be approximately 1 hour
before the end of the previous job just in case the first job runs quicker
than expected. I have also set up 11 duplicate backup jobs to run after the
completion of each of the main jobs.

Is there any way to force the duplicated to wait until all the main jobs
have completed before they start? The reason I ask is that if a job runs
quicker than expected and the library goes idle then one of the duplicate
jobs will kick off and slow down my whole backup schedule. I have only a
limited amount of time to get main backups done in. The duplicates can run
anytime.

I have thought about changing to duplicating sessions but that means manual
sceduling each week which I would rather avoid. I suppose I could go back
to two jobs for each server like in version 8.6 but that still puts me up
against my time window.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Duplicate Job Question

You can use the BEMCMD utility to call the duplicate jobs as "Post Jobs" on
the last regular job that runs.

You can do the same thing to release each regular job when the previous one
finishes.

I am a little curious about something you said, tho. About "saturating the
NIC". I used to have a dedicated backup server (PII 450, 640MB, two
dedicated SCSI Channels with two DLT4000 drives on each and 100MB/Full
Duplex.) I had only a very small detectable drop in throughput for a given
job even when all four drives were running at the same time, all doing
network backups.

Sounds like the library may be mis-configured. You're on the latest
firmware and drivers for the library and tape drives, right ? I prefer mfg
drivers to those from Veritas or MS

"Greg Pagan" wrote in message
news:3ffd9e64@ROSASTDMZ05....
> I have v9.0 running on a library with 2 drives. I backup 11 different
> servers and have decided to run 11 different backup jobs, one for each
> different server. Because of the limit of 100 MB on my NIC, I only backup
> to one drive for all of the drives. If I try to run two jobs
simultaneuosly
> to both drives I end up saturateing the NIC and the second drive only gets
a
> throughput of 1 or 2 MB a minute which makes it basically worthless. I
> stagger the start times of each of the jobs to be approximately 1 hour
> before the end of the previous job just in case the first job runs quicker
> than expected. I have also set up 11 duplicate backup jobs to run after
the
> completion of each of the main jobs.
>
> Is there any way to force the duplicated to wait until all the main jobs
> have completed before they start? The reason I ask is that if a job runs
> quicker than expected and the library goes idle then one of the duplicate
> jobs will kick off and slow down my whole backup schedule. I have only a
> limited amount of time to get main backups done in. The duplicates can
run
> anytime.
>
> I have thought about changing to duplicating sessions but that means
manual
> sceduling each week which I would rather avoid. I suppose I could go back
> to two jobs for each server like in version 8.6 but that still puts me up
> against my time window.
>
> Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
>
>

Re: Duplicate Job Question

I will check out the Documentation on BEMCMD to see how I would use this. I
am not familiar with the command line, or post commands. I must confess for
this application I am GUI only.

Now as far as the saturation goes. I was told by someone here at my company
that my new SDLT drives have the ability to read more data than my 100 MB
card could supply hence my saturation comment. The person making the
comment has never led me astray before so I just believed him. I do think I
will contact Compaq though just to see if I can get them to walk me though
the configuration to make sure I did not mess something up, which is a
distinct possiblilty. Yes, I am running the altest firmare for both the
library and the drives and yes I am running Compaq drivers but that just
happened to day. I had been using Veritas drives prior to this.

Thanks for your post.

Greg

"ken putnam" wrote in message
news:3ffda2a3@ROSASTDMZ05....
> You can use the BEMCMD utility to call the duplicate jobs as "Post Jobs"
on
> the last regular job that runs.
>
> You can do the same thing to release each regular job when the previous
one
> finishes.
>
> I am a little curious about something you said, tho. About "saturating
the
> NIC". I used to have a dedicated backup server (PII 450, 640MB, two
> dedicated SCSI Channels with two DLT4000 drives on each and 100MB/Full
> Duplex.) I had only a very small detectable drop in throughput for a
given
> job even when all four drives were running at the same time, all doing
> network backups.
>
> Sounds like the library may be mis-configured. You're on the latest
> firmware and drivers for the library and tape drives, right ? I prefer
mfg
> drivers to those from Veritas or MS
>
> "Greg Pagan" wrote in message
> news:3ffd9e64@ROSASTDMZ05....
> > I have v9.0 running on a library with 2 drives. I backup 11 different
> > servers and have decided to run 11 different backup jobs, one for each
> > different server. Because of the limit of 100 MB on my NIC, I only
backup
> > to one drive for all of the drives. If I try to run two jobs
> simultaneuosly
> > to both drives I end up saturateing the NIC and the second drive only
gets
> a
> > throughput of 1 or 2 MB a minute which makes it basically worthless. I
> > stagger the start times of each of the jobs to be approximately 1 hour
> > before the end of the previous job just in case the first job runs
quicker
> > than expected. I have also set up 11 duplicate backup jobs to run after
> the
> > completion of each of the main jobs.
> >
> > Is there any way to force the duplicated to wait until all the main jobs
> > have completed before they start? The reason I ask is that if a job
runs
> > quicker than expected and the library goes idle then one of the
duplicate
> > jobs will kick off and slow down my whole backup schedule. I have only
a
> > limited amount of time to get main backups done in. The duplicates can
> run
> > anytime.
> >
> > I have thought about changing to duplicating sessions but that means
> manual
> > sceduling each week which I would rather avoid. I suppose I could go
back
> > to two jobs for each server like in version 8.6 but that still puts me
up
> > against my time window.
> >
> > Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> >
>
>

Re: Duplicate Job Question

AFAIK, about all the documentation for BEMCMD is in the help file. from the
...\Utils dir (I think), do

"BEMCMD /? > BEMCMD.TXT"

This will re-direct the help output to the named text file. Once you play
around with it till you get the cmd line parameter the way that you wnat
them, then from the JobDescription for the appropriate jon, enter the cmd
line in the POST JOB COMMAND box.

I usually use a CMD file that looks something like this called "Release
Job2.CMD" or whatever.

Don't remember off the top of my head what the option to release a job is,
but it's in the help.

"Greg Pagan" wrote in message
news:3ffdb6ed@ROSASTDMZ05....
> I will check out the Documentation on BEMCMD to see how I would use this.
I
> am not familiar with the command line, or post commands. I must confess
for
> this application I am GUI only.
>
> Now as far as the saturation goes. I was told by someone here at my
company
> that my new SDLT drives have the ability to read more data than my 100 MB
> card could supply hence my saturation comment. The person making the
> comment has never led me astray before so I just believed him. I do think
I
> will contact Compaq though just to see if I can get them to walk me though
> the configuration to make sure I did not mess something up, which is a
> distinct possiblilty. Yes, I am running the altest firmare for both the
> library and the drives and yes I am running Compaq drivers but that just
> happened to day. I had been using Veritas drives prior to this.
>
> Thanks for your post.
>
> Greg
>
> "ken putnam" wrote in message
> news:3ffda2a3@ROSASTDMZ05....
> > You can use the BEMCMD utility to call the duplicate jobs as "Post Jobs"
> on
> > the last regular job that runs.
> >
> > You can do the same thing to release each regular job when the previous
> one
> > finishes.
> >
> > I am a little curious about something you said, tho. About "saturating
> the
> > NIC". I used to have a dedicated backup server (PII 450, 640MB, two
> > dedicated SCSI Channels with two DLT4000 drives on each and 100MB/Full
> > Duplex.) I had only a very small detectable drop in throughput for a
> given
> > job even when all four drives were running at the same time, all doing
> > network backups.
> >
> > Sounds like the library may be mis-configured. You're on the latest
> > firmware and drivers for the library and tape drives, right ? I prefer
> mfg
> > drivers to those from Veritas or MS
> >
> > "Greg Pagan" wrote in message
> > news:3ffd9e64@ROSASTDMZ05....
> > > I have v9.0 running on a library with 2 drives. I backup 11 different
> > > servers and have decided to run 11 different backup jobs, one for each
> > > different server. Because of the limit of 100 MB on my NIC, I only
> backup
> > > to one drive for all of the drives. If I try to run two jobs
> > simultaneuosly
> > > to both drives I end up saturateing the NIC and the second drive only
> gets
> > a
> > > throughput of 1 or 2 MB a minute which makes it basically worthless.
I
> > > stagger the start times of each of the jobs to be approximately 1 hour
> > > before the end of the previous job just in case the first job runs
> quicker
> > > than expected. I have also set up 11 duplicate backup jobs to run
after
> > the
> > > completion of each of the main jobs.
> > >
> > > Is there any way to force the duplicated to wait until all the main
jobs
> > > have completed before they start? The reason I ask is that if a job
> runs
> > > quicker than expected and the library goes idle then one of the
> duplicate
> > > jobs will kick off and slow down my whole backup schedule. I have
only
> a
> > > limited amount of time to get main backups done in. The duplicates
can
> > run
> > > anytime.
> > >
> > > I have thought about changing to duplicating sessions but that means
> > manual
> > > sceduling each week which I would rather avoid. I suppose I could go
> back
> > > to two jobs for each server like in version 8.6 but that still puts me
> up
> > > against my time window.
> > >
> > > Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>

Re: Duplicate Job Question

Thanks for the heads up on the documentation. I will be looking it over
this weekend to see if I can makes heads or tails out of it.

Greg

"ken putnam" wrote in message
news:3ffdbacf@ROSASTDMZ05....
> AFAIK, about all the documentation for BEMCMD is in the help file. from
the
> ..\Utils dir (I think), do
>
> "BEMCMD /? > BEMCMD.TXT"
>
> This will re-direct the help output to the named text file. Once you play
> around with it till you get the cmd line parameter the way that you wnat
> them, then from the JobDescription for the appropriate jon, enter the cmd
> line in the POST JOB COMMAND box.
>
> I usually use a CMD file that looks something like this called "Release
> Job2.CMD" or whatever.
>
> c:
> cd "Program Files\Veritas\BackupExec\NT\Utils"
> (or where-ever BEMCMD lives, since there is no path defined when the
Post
> Job Command executes)
> BEMCMD -xxx -parm1 -parm2
>
> Don't remember off the top of my head what the option to release a job is,
> but it's in the help.
>
>
> "Greg Pagan" wrote in message
> news:3ffdb6ed@ROSASTDMZ05....
> > I will check out the Documentation on BEMCMD to see how I would use
this.
> I
> > am not familiar with the command line, or post commands. I must confess
> for
> > this application I am GUI only.
> >
> > Now as far as the saturation goes. I was told by someone here at my
> company
> > that my new SDLT drives have the ability to read more data than my 100
MB
> > card could supply hence my saturation comment. The person making the
> > comment has never led me astray before so I just believed him. I do
think
> I
> > will contact Compaq though just to see if I can get them to walk me
though
> > the configuration to make sure I did not mess something up, which is a
> > distinct possiblilty. Yes, I am running the altest firmare for both the
> > library and the drives and yes I am running Compaq drivers but that just
> > happened to day. I had been using Veritas drives prior to this.
> >
> > Thanks for your post.
> >
> > Greg
> >
> > "ken putnam" wrote in message
> > news:3ffda2a3@ROSASTDMZ05....
> > > You can use the BEMCMD utility to call the duplicate jobs as "Post
Jobs"
> > on
> > > the last regular job that runs.
> > >
> > > You can do the same thing to release each regular job when the
previous
> > one
> > > finishes.
> > >
> > > I am a little curious about something you said, tho. About
"saturating
> > the
> > > NIC". I used to have a dedicated backup server (PII 450, 640MB, two
> > > dedicated SCSI Channels with two DLT4000 drives on each and 100MB/Full
> > > Duplex.) I had only a very small detectable drop in throughput for a
> > given
> > > job even when all four drives were running at the same time, all doing
> > > network backups.
> > >
> > > Sounds like the library may be mis-configured. You're on the latest
> > > firmware and drivers for the library and tape drives, right ? I
prefer
> > mfg
> > > drivers to those from Veritas or MS
> > >
> > > "Greg Pagan" wrote in message
> > > news:3ffd9e64@ROSASTDMZ05....
> > > > I have v9.0 running on a library with 2 drives. I backup 11
different
> > > > servers and have decided to run 11 different backup jobs, one for
each
> > > > different server. Because of the limit of 100 MB on my NIC, I only
> > backup
> > > > to one drive for all of the drives. If I try to run two jobs
> > > simultaneuosly
> > > > to both drives I end up saturateing the NIC and the second drive
only
> > gets
> > > a
> > > > throughput of 1 or 2 MB a minute which makes it basically worthless.
> I
> > > > stagger the start times of each of the jobs to be approximately 1
hour
> > > > before the end of the previous job just in case the first job runs
> > quicker
> > > > than expected. I have also set up 11 duplicate backup jobs to run
> after
> > > the
> > > > completion of each of the main jobs.
> > > >
> > > > Is there any way to force the duplicated to wait until all the main
> jobs
> > > > have completed before they start? The reason I ask is that if a job
> > runs
> > > > quicker than expected and the library goes idle then one of the
> > duplicate
> > > > jobs will kick off and slow down my whole backup schedule. I have
> only
> > a
> > > > limited amount of time to get main backups done in. The duplicates
> can
> > > run
> > > > anytime.
> > > >
> > > > I have thought about changing to duplicating sessions but that means
> > > manual
> > > > sceduling each week which I would rather avoid. I suppose I could
go
> > back
> > > > to two jobs for each server like in version 8.6 but that still puts
me
> > up
> > > > against my time window.
> > > >
> > > > Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>